666.47.17 Artemisia absinthium, Case
Man, 20, schizophrenia.
It started after an accident with his motorbike in puberty, where he was in coma for about 15 minutes and fractured his tibia and helmet completely. After the accident he got headaches and vomiting in the morning. After a few weeks his behaviour became weird. He developed an aversion to parties, swimming pools and places where people were. Then he started to hide in cupboards, putting on strange clothes, sometimes in many layers over each other and began to regulate the traffic. After half a year he was diagnosed schizophrenic. Half a year later he also became aggressive, started to beat his father. A hospitalisation for 2 months was useless. Chinese herbs and magnetising were no help either. He got a strong desire for alcohol and tobacco, he could drink a whole bottle of wine in 5 minutes. This created a lot of fights with his father, who had to lock all the alcoholic drinks behind doors. But he managed often to find the key and started to drink again. Due to the alcohol he started to get an swelling of the liver, low grade fever constantly and fluid behind the lungs. His memory was only working for the time before the accident, he remembered nothing of the 4 years after it.
He has the feeling of being persecuted. He can be aggressive, throwing chairs and beating his father. Once they tried to control his anger but he was so strong that 4 men had to keep him down in order to control him. He once threw with an ashtray through a painting. He had a tendency to stand in the way of his father in a threatening way in a corridor, so that his father could hardly pass.
He does not work or study at all, he does not do anything the whole day. He only does something when he gets alcohol or tobacco for it. He often looks in the mirror, thinking he is ugly. He wants to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. After alcohol he is more active, talks more. When he keeps on drinking his language is completely gibberish.
His behaviour is difficult, sitting in his chair, laughing and giggling, not answering any question. He has strange remarks such as “I do not like that guy (himself), he is a killer, a lunatic”. In the past he became angry when called schizophrenic. He says that he knows who is schizophrenic but is not allowed to say it. One can feel his anger mixed with giggling in a kind of sardonic behaviour when not answering questions. As a interveiewer one gets the feeling that it’s better not to ask further in order not to provoke an outburst of rage. He feels very unpredictable and angry. He becomes angry when things do not go his way.
He has the delusion of being persecuted, dirty.
He likes blonde girls with big breasts.
He likes to draw caricatures and he is good at it.
As a baby he had diarrhoea, got dehydration and was hospitalised for a week. After this event he kept weeping and screaming and did not want his mother near anymore for a year.
The mother had diabetes during pregnancy and had to follow a diabetic diet. The labour started too early but was on time. The membranes did not break easily and the mother was bleeding much after birth.
He developed normally, was good in school.
As a child he was quiet as long as one did not disturb him.
He is the youngest of 5 children.
Weather: -> warm weather.
Sweat: copious, offensive.
Time: < 5 pm.
Food: -> pasta, cheese, bacon, tomato, alcohol!, tobacco!.
Aversion: food that has to be chewed.
Sleep: difficult, sleeps with his clothes on and light has to be on, out of fear of the dark.
Analysis
The “cause” of the psychosis is trauma, the accident with his motorbike. This is a strong theme of the Asteraceae. His behaviour can be seen as a defense against a threat of the outside world, a threat of his integrity. This is the essence of the Asteraceae.
The theme of psychosis is strong in the subfamily of Artemisiae of the Asteraceae. It can be found under terms like: insanity, madness, mania and idiocy.
The Stage is 17. He behaves like an outcast someone who is unwanted. He is not the outcast who is still tolerated like in Stage 16 but threatened fully as an outcast like in Stage 17. We see Stage 17 also in symptoms like stealing, kleptomania, lying, taking what he needs without asking, threatening and cruelty. Stage 17 in the Artemisiae is Absinthium, also named Artemisia absinthium. In Absinthium we see also many other symptoms of this case: alcoholism, desire tobacco, cruelty and delusion persecuted.
A big differential diagnosis are the Solanaceae, especially Belladonna, Stramonium and Hyoscyamus. They also have psychosis, aggression, fear of darkness, alcoholism and delusion being persecuted. Both groups have the theme of threat. But in the Solanaceae there is the theme of fight or flight, they can flee. In the Artemisiae the possibility of escape is missing, the threat is continuous.
Follow up
After the remedy he did very well. After a month he felt much better and a lot of his psychotic behaviour was gone. Absinthium MK was repeated once a month for 3 months. He did not come back after that. But after 2 years his grandmother came with another one of her grandchildren and told that he was completely cured and the diagnosis of schizophrenia was dropped. He lives a normal life without medication and has a job.
Other remedies that he had been given without effect: Lycopodium, Stramonium, Belladonna, Natrium sulphuricum, Helium, Bufo, Calendula.
Stramonium and Belladonna are Solanaceae but had no effect. After Helium MK he was angry for 2 weeks. After Bufo 200K he was calmer, less aggressive, sleepless, less headache, fear dark. After a repetition of Bufo 200K he became very aggressive, breaking the mirror, beating his parents, > alcohol. Calendula had no effect. After Capsicum he was less aggressive, reasonable, can make appointments, interested in others, less shameless.